Roy Harper (review and rant, long)

[Paul Davison <pd%cs.qmc.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>]

This long article was written in reply to a posting on USENET which
completely misrepresented poor old Roy, but I thought that Love-Hounds
would be interested since they obviously have superior musical taste.
Also, there is a slight link between Roy and KT I suppose!

      [	Yeah, ol' Roy's great!  I'm glad to hear that his new album is
	out.  Kate and Roy are good friends.  I met Roy when I went to
	a gig of his in London a few years back.  He's a swell guy.
	-- |>oug ]

In article <2664@houxa.UUCP>, sls@houxa.UUCP (S.SOUTHERN) writes:

> I just recently finished the unauthorized zep biography, "Hammer of
> the Gods".  Good stuff for zep fans.  An interesting song on Zep III
> is "Hats of to Roy Harper".  This is a rather odd, bluesy
> arrangement that has a lot of the clicheish blues lines, such as
> "shake 'em on down" and "down on the killin' floor" (what is a
> killin' floor, anyway?).  Roy Harper was a somewhat deranged blues
> artist who kind of "tagged" along with the band in the early
> seventies.  They enjoyed his antics at first, but took to abusing
> him (spontaneously hitting him and throwing him about) as time went
> on.

I'm going to do two things in this posting.

1) Set the record straight with respect to Roy's frienship with Led Zep
(and Pink Floyd, Kate Bush etc).

2) Review the new album, which came out yesterday (March 28th).

I was going to post a long review of the new record anyway, but since
some discussion about Roy has appeared on the net (this is a rare
event!) this is a perfect chance for me to combine the two.

1) I have read "Hammer of the Gods" and considered it to be a
sensationalist book in the extreme. However, the book disagrees with
the poster who claimed that Zep started to abuse Roy, "spontaneously
hitting him and throwing him about". In fact it was the roadies who
got fed up with Roy. They couldn't understand why he stood offstage
while Zep were playing, waving a plastic monkey in the air. Well
really, if you don't understand that then you don't understand
anything do you?

Both Jimmy and Robert expressed great admiration for Roy's stance,
which was that he would only play music the way he wanted and wouldn't
conform to record company requirements (i.e. commercialism). Colm was
absolutely right about that. "Hats off to (Roy) Harper" was recorded
as a genuine tribute, though a lot of people have misinterpreted it.

Roy sings on "Have a Cigar" from the Floyd's "Wish you were Here"
album.  He also sings backing vocals on Kate Bush's "Breathing". Kate
returned the favour by singing with Roy on "You (the Game part 2)" on
his "The Unknown Soldier" album. Roy also sang backing vocals on one
of Dave Gilmour's solo albums, proably "About Face" though I'm
uncertain about that. 

Finally, in 1975 at the Rainbow Theatre, people such as Jimmy Page,
Robert Plant, Keith Moon, David Bedford, Martin Ford, Ronnie Lane and
Max Middleton played along with Roy as a celebration of his return to
health after a near-fatal blood disorder

	[ Dave Gilmour and Roy have worked a lot together.  They have
	  cowritten a lot of material.  Roy Harper's previous album,
	  *Whatever Happened to Jugula?* has Jimmy Page on guitar for
	  the entire album.  -- |>oug ]

Why should so many famous and successful musicians associate with a
"somewhat deranged blues artist"?

Because they recognised Roy's great talent and social conscience, not
to mention musical ability. If you want to experience it too, then why
not start with the brand new album.

2) The new album was considerably delayed, but finally arrived on the
shelves on the 28th of March. It's also available in CD format, the
first ever RH album to be released in this medium. The CD has one
additional track which is an acoustic version of the first album track,
which was on the B side of the UK single.

The album is mainly acoustic, filled out in places by non-obtrusive
synth and other effects. Track details:

LAUGHING INSIDE

This track was the UK single, presumably because EMI thought it was the
most commercial song. It was co-written by Roy's son, Nick (If you have
got FolkJokeOpus you'll recognise "Nicky my child, he stands there with
the wind in his hair") and is basically about how it's sometimes better
to let love find you rather than you going out and hunting it. It's a
lively track, with some very nice guitar playing in a break in the
middle. I can't decide whether I like this version or the acoustic one
best, it depends what mood I'm in.

THE GARDEN OF URANIUM

The title suggests a song concerned with nuclear issues. It's about the
insanity of nuclear waste dumping in England (or anywhere else) and
worries about the future.

"You don't care about the children, there's plenty where they're from,
 To populate the Garden of Uranium"

STILL LIFE

This song is an examination of the world from the perspective of an
individual cocooned in their own protective shell. It's like you feel
if you wake up just before sunrise and fell the world gradually come
alive around you.

PINCHES OF SALT

Is about how people with blinkers over their eyes can refuse to
comprehend or even acknowledge some really awful things happening
around them. This is a song you don't take with a pinch of salt.

"Shapes became colours and turning a page
 Wasn't just quite by the book
 But Arthur was sure there must be some more Pinches of Salt..."

DESERT ISLAND

Part of a longer song called "Burn the World", which didn't appear on
the album for various reasons, mainly that EMI don't like 20 minute
songs. This questions our attitude to our planet and pushes home the
point that it isn't expendable and that it should be the "hostess
rather than the meal".

GOVERNMENT SURPLUS

Examines the awful prejudice against the workless and poor in Britain,
and also the attitude that women don't have real jobs, just factory
ones, and only really are fit for producing children. It really
hammers the absurd comment by a Tory MP a while back that the jobless
should "Get on their bikes and look for work".

LICQUORICE ALL-TIME

The song took me completely by surprise, it's like absolutely nothing
RH has done before. It's almost a rap, with fast and furious lyrics
hitting you in wave after wave. It's another song protesting about
life in this world, people absoring all that's fed to them without
question or thought. It's not all doom and gloom though, since it's
perhaps more bearable if you have somebody to share it with.

MAILE LEI

Roy got married recently, on May-Day on a beach in Hawaii. This is a
love song celebrating the event and the feelings. Beautifully played
and sung.

SAME SHOES

A laughable trend in the UK at the moment is a sudden flashback to old
Rock'n'Roll tunes, adverts with Eddie Cochran and Marilyn Monroe, and
general re-discovery of that era even to the extent of some really old
music coming back into the charts. "The old man knew it all back in
'69, but he wasn't living in '69, he was living in Cuba".

I wonder if there'll ever be a revival of the 70's and 80's. Things
would have to be *really* bad to make them seem worth glorifying.

DESCENDANTS OF SMITH

A rather horrifying piece of science fiction. In the year 4,000,003
descendants of Smith find his remains frozen in ice, and his
belongings are sold as relics. He is reconstructed and displayed....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this is the best album Roy has done for many years, all the
more so because it works on two levels. It could be bought simply for
the melodies and more obvious love songs, but also for the wealth of
meaning contained between the lines. Hopefully people will buy it for
the former and then discover the latter.

Summary: you MUST BUY THIS RECORD!! But then, I'm biased. If anyone
has alternative interpretations of the songs, or wants to post a more
impartial review, I'd be fascinated. If you want info about gigs, or
the RH fanzine, or availability of the back catalogue, or anything
else then feel free to e-mail me. By the way, the release of
"Commercial Break", the album that never made it past test pressings,
plus "Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion", have been delayed so
that the new album gets it's best chance uncluttered by older stuff. I
think it will be "real soon now"...

Thanks for reading all this!


Paul Davison

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